Vehicle insurance can be purchased for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Vehicle insurance provides financial protection against a physical damage and/or a bodily injury resulting from a traffic collision and against liability that can also arise there from. The specific terms of vehicle insurance vary with legal regulations in each region. Such vehicle insurance may additionally offer financial protection against theft of the vehicle and possibly damage to the vehicle sustained from things other than traffic collisions.
In addition to causing significant problems to the public for collecting damages in traffic accidents, uninsured vehicles cause important loss of revenue for governments and insurance companies. FIG. 1 illustrates a sample table 100 containing example data regarding the estimated number and rate of uninsured vehicles in California from 1995 to 2004. Similar statistics can also be obtained for other states. In 2007, for example, the uninsured motor vehicle rates for New Mexico, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Florida are reported as 29%, 28%, 26%, 24%, and 23%, respectively, illustrating the extent of the uninsured vehicle problem across different states. Due to its large impact on public, there is an extensive public interest for an automated solution for detecting uninsured vehicles driving in traffic and to penalize a violator.
Conventionally, an uninsured motor vehicle can be detected utilizing an image-capturing unit already operating at, for example, a to booth/stop sign, highway, or red light. Such an image capturing unit, however, typically operates in conjunction with a sensor based triggering system installed beneath a road such as an induction loop, a weight sensor, or an in-ground sensor, etc. When a vehicle is detected by the traffic sensor, the image capturing unit is triggered to capture a snapshot of the vehicle.
FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art image capturing unit triggering system 150 having an induction loop traffic sensor 155. The induction loop traffic sensor 155 further includes an electrical meter 175, an underground electrical wire 165, and a system computer 170. When a vehicle 180 enters into the induction loop 155, the induction loop 155 generates an electromagnetic field 160 that creates current in the loop triggering the image capturing unit. Such traffic sensor 155 for triggering the image capturing unit requires high installation and maintenance costs. They are also invasive and require closing one or more lanes in an installation.